Lover of God, nature, wildlife, birds, gardening, photography, travel, simple living, health, pets and seeking a peaceful, healing lifestyle. Life has many hurts and sorrows but within "the [divine] nature in us" we CAN overcome.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Dealing With Long-term Diseases

by Donna L. Watkins

It's been six (6) months since I visited the Emergency Room and was told to contact Hospice and have a living will since I did not want medical treatment. I had been diagnosed with a totally diseased heart valve, was in atrial fibrillation for three (3) months, and was experiencing congestive heart failure with twenty-one (21) extra pounds of fluid on my normal 120-pound body.

Every breath was precious at that time since the lung x-rays a month earlier had showed them 1/3 filled with fluid, and 30 days later it certainly wasn't getting any better. Which was my real motivation for the visit to the ER. I was now willing to do an IV diuretic to get some of the fluid off.

The Heart of the Matter is the beginning of this healing story. There are links at the bottom of that post for all updates.

End of Summer Garden Colors
Blue & Black Salvias with Obedient Plants

Now that I'm down the road a bit ... things have continued to improve. I force my thoughts to dwell on seeing myself well. Most times people with long-term diseases tend to see themselves "sick trying to get well."

Instead we need to see ourselves as "healed resisting sickness." If we tolerate sickness, it will hang around as long as we do. I have such a strong tendency to be able to "bear up and move on" so now that I have energy and so many things healed already, it is a challenge to deal with all that's left, but there's a lot left that I learned to live with and I'm not going to put up with any involvement of the devil in my life.

It's hard to decide which problems are at the top of the list, but I guess I would say that the destruction from the rheumatoid arthritis would be my first choice since it would certainly allow me to be less clumsy in the kitchen and allow me to do things I've not been able to do for a very long time, such as ride a bike (be able to hold on the handlebars), swing in the playground, cut food on my plate without looking like a contortionist, and the list goes on.

After that I would choose vitiligo or allergies? It's been 36 years with the vitiligo (loss of pigment in patches all over my body). Since I'm light-skinned it's less noticeable as long as I stay out of the sun to tan my pigmented skin, but as you might imagine I dream of many "fun in the sun" activities. When we moved to Virginia from Alabama the sun was much less intense and about eight (8) years ago I made the decision it was not going to control my time in the garden. We do have a well-shaded acre lot so I can roam about without continual sun, but the victory of not fearing the sun has been wonderful. It's allowed me to venture out on canoes while my hands could still hold the paddle.

Allergies? Well I was born with them, so I guess that's a very long-term issue at 62 years. Foods, chemicals, pollen, cat dander, etc. Yes, we do have a cat and I've had as many as three at a time since I learned I was allergic to them in 1979. Like I said, I do well being stubborn (stupid) enough to ignore such things.

Now I convert it into a faith move since "faith without works is dead." If we truly believe that we are healed as Jesus said and that our bodies will manifest that as we get revelation on it, then we should find some way to act that out. But it needs to be faith, not the desire to get something for doing the work. In other words I didn't get off all the supplements I used to manage my many diseases hoping it would be a 'work of faith' that would produce healing ... but rather that I believed it was time to do it because I was healed in the spirit realm and awaiting its manifestation in the physical realm.

To understand more about the spiritual vs. the physical realm of it already being done, read the article "You've Already Got It." You can watch a conference on this topic or download the MP3's to listen to the audio version, at this link.

Close-up of Obedient Plant

I do a lot of picturing of my cells becoming as God intended them to be. After all our entire body renews itself in 120 days ... but I'm commanding my cells to be as God's original design, not just duplication of those worn-out disobedient cells I already had!

For a month now I have realized the fact that I now have more energy and stamina than I had before the heart issues and because of that can do many more things than I was able to do. It makes me joyous to realize what the devil planned for evil, God has used for good. That's amazing to me and so exciting that I can do almost whatever I want now (except with my hands). Matter of fact I sometimes have a hard time sleeping because I want to be with Papa God in His Word or have something exciting I want to accomplish the next day and I get too excited to sleep.

Randal just realized last week that the hard thumping in my aorta isn't there. It was thought that I might have an aortic aneurysm. I never went for the test since I knew I wouldn't do anything about it. It wouldn't have showed up on the sonogram they did when my heart valve blew out and I went into congestive heart failure, so I will never know. You could visibly see my heart pounding in my stomach area when I laid down and Randal said he could always feel it when he gave me hugs.

Anyway ... he came to me that morning and told me he doesn't feel that any more and I thought about it and realized I don't notice it any more when I lie down either. Since the heart crisis and all those months of sleeping sitting up I now praise the Lord every time I lie down flat to sleep or spend some kitty loving time. So ... I journaled another victory in my Healing Journey book.

Another thing that's been happening is that I had symptoms of hyperactive thyroid, so three (3) weeks ago, I cut my dosage on the thyroid glandular in half from two pills to one. I've been on thyroid since 1976 when they gave me radioactive iodine to destroy my overactive thyroid, which made it under active. A few years later I switched to a more natural product, but knowing the thyroid has to do with many things in the body, I'm not surprised that it's one of the things healing that I've not thought much about. The cut in dosage made a difference in all symptom concerns, so .....

Today I stopped the thyroid completely believing the Holy Spirit was directing me to do so. I can't say I have total confidence in what I hear, so I have relied on my symptoms to guide me. I will make note if the symptoms lessen even more (hair falling out, not sleeping deeply, increased appetite without weight gain, a sense of being anxious, etc.) to know I'm on the right track and after 6-8 weeks off of it I will go for a blood test at the clinic where I've been going annually. There's a wonderful Christian doctor there that has worked with me for the past 12 years without being condescending about my health care choices. He was who I went to when the whole heart thing began and he arranged the cardiologist appointments. We don't have any primary care doctors.

I've had so many health problems long-term that my mind is taking awhile to be renewed in all the principles of divine healing. Jesus has already done it in the spiritual realm, but I'm only 1/3 spirit being. I also have a soul and body. The body will take direction from the spirit or soul, which ever we choose and for many, many, many years my soul (mind, will, emotions) has been in charge.

Donna & Randal - July 12, 2012
Crabtree Falls - Tyro, VA

It's a new period of life -- never too old to learn. Long-term health problems tend to become part of who you are. We adapt and put up with things thinking we're supposed to be strong and bear it, when in actuality we were commanded to rebuke it and command it to leave. Only the devil wants to steal, kill and destroy, so it's not God putting disease on us. There's not one account of Jesus using disease to teach anybody anything.

The Word is for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness (I Timothy 3:16). And that wonderful Word is what's renewing my body step by step. Praise God! It's been five (5) months now since the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) left. It's no longer chomping its way through my joints, muscles and organs. It will be a grand day when all the RA damage all over my body is renewed or regenerated.

I began with this book, "God Wants You Well" three months before the heart health crisis hit. I just "happened" upon it in August and requested it on my Amazon Wish List for my birthday in early September. God was preparing the way before me! How awesome is our Father! He loves us soooo much!

Copyright and Reprint Information

All photos remain the property of Donna L. Watkins, but may be used with proper credit and link back to the website, TheNature InUs.com. Articles written by Donna L. Watkins can be reprinted with proper credit and link back to the website, TheNatureInUs.com.

Quotes

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures. -- Francis Bacon

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." – George Eliot - See more at: http://www.thenatureinus.com/#sthash.Rhtw3CRa.dpuf

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." – George Eliot - See more at: http://www.thenatureinus.com/#sthash.Rhtw3CRa.dpuf

"It's never too late to be what you might have been." -- George Eliott

"I've spent too long waiting for what's been taken from me, rather than enjoying what's been given to me." -- Unknown

“In God’s wilderness lies the hope of the world – the great fresh, unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and the wounds heal ere we are aware.” -- John Muir

"Faith is the bird that senses the light and sings while dawn is still dark." -- Rabindranath Tagore

"To know something about trees--about even one tree--is to know something profound about the nature of the world and our place in it." -- Gerald Jonas"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out that there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is." -- Albert CamusLike winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher "standard of living" is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free. For us the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech. -- Aldo Leopold (1886-1948)

"It is clear that there is one main message creation has to communicate to human beings, namely, the glory of God. Not primarily the glory of creation, but the glory of God. The glory of creation and the glory of God are as different as the love poem and the love, the painting and the landscape, the ring and the marriage. It would be a great folly and a great tragedy if a man loved his wedding band more than he loved his bride." -- John Piper

"We will do better in all aspects of life if we learn to "let go" of all we hold so tightly to and realize that control is a myth and striving for it is insanity." -- Donna L. Watkins